That s how I feel after reading Harper Lee s second coming of Atticus Finch in the just released novel Go Set a Watchman.

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Katherine Austin
5 years ago
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SOMETIMES I wished some things would remain the same. That s how I feel after reading Harper Lee s second coming of Atticus Finch in the just released novel Go Set a Watchman.

1 SOMETIMES I wished some things would remain the same. That s how I feel after reading Harper Lee s second coming of Atticus Finch in the just released novel Go Set a Watchman. In this second novel, Atticus Finch, the crusading lawyer who was trying to defend a black man in the first novel To Kill a Mockingbird, was featured as a changed person a change that made me and many others, practically disappointed in this unexpected 360-degree turnaround of events. A good friend once warned me, many, many years of long ago: If you are fond of a place or a thing that you treasure so much in your heart, don t go back to see that place or thing again, because you will only be disappointed if it turned out to be different from what is in your 1 / 5

2 memory. My hero, in the first novel To Kill a Mockingbird, is Atticus Finch, a 50-something-year-old lawyer in Maycomb, Alabama, a fictional town in the South. Finch, then, was the embodiment of what is good crusading for the acquittal of Tom Robinson, a hapless, innocent black man accused of raping a young white girl. The story supposedly happened in the 1930s, a turbulent time in the history of America s South. It s that time when racial prejudice was rampant. I saw the film version of the To Kill a Mockingbird, in the early 60s while in college. It was easy to embrace the story, and I must admit, I had instantly become an adoring fan of Gregory Peck, who later won the Best Actor Academy Award for the role of Atticus Finch. It was only after I had settled here in NYC that I happened to read the book itself. In that first novel, Finch tried his utmost best to convince the jury that his client is innocent. He argued that he wanted to defend not because he is black but because he believes he is not guilty of the charge. After a lengthy courtroom drama, the jury convicted Tom Robinson, much to the dismay and disappointment of Finch s daughters Scout and Jem who were all too young, yet wise enough to 2 / 5

3 understand the injustices of it all. To the eyes of his daughters, Finch is the symbol of a moral compass, the father who wouldn t do wrong and was idolized by his children as the spiritual foundation of his family and of the community. After the conviction, Jem, sister of Jean Louise Finch, asked her lawyer father why the injustice, and the father replied: They ve done it before, and they did it tonight and they ll do it again and when they do it it seems that only the children will weep. His memorable advice to the wind which presumably was the basis of the book s title: Shoot all the bluejays you want, if you can hit em, but remember it s a sin to kill a mockingbird. In the new novel Go Set a Watchman, just released last month, the now 26-year-old Jean Louise Finch or Scout is returning home for a visit to her hometown of Maycomb after some two decades of staying in the Big Apple. On her way back, she purposely took the train to slowly immerse her mind to the landscapes of many memories that defined her childhood. It was a bittersweet return journey. The town had now changed or so it seemed to Scout. The people had changed, specially those people she grew up around with, like her father Atticus Finch, now an ageing senior citizen, from an idealistic crusading lawyer for fairness and justice, into a distant, angry and vindictive man. 3 / 5

4 Scout is now faced with a dilemma how to reconcile the images of his father s goodness she saw as a young girl against the realization that transformed, his beliefs and his personality, into something totally out of his character. Both novels, To Kill a Mockingbird and Go Set a Watchman, are allegories of social and political conditions. The Mockingbird referred to is the innocence of the children, as well as those victims of circumstances. It is a metaphor of something abstract or hidden. On the other hand, the Go Set a Watchman, is a betrayal of that innocence. Scout found herself lost in the fantasies of her imagined childhood memories, thinking nothing had changed much. Going back home is a painful journey for Scout what with the disillusionment about her father and everything else. In my opinion, the redeeming value of the book Go Set a Watchman is that it enables us to see the past, the present and the future with our own conscience. And that conscience, in allegorical fashion, is referred to as The Watchman, our own watchman that guides us along the ways. Of course, as I said, there were times when I wished some things would remain the same as it is. 4 / 5

5 But in real life, everything changes. Beauty changes, life changes and people change. We are all part of the changing world. Harper Lee is an extra-ordinary writer, and a recipient of many exceptional awards and honors. Her stories were based from her childhood experiences about racial prejudices in her hometown of Monroeville, Alabama during those uneasy times in the Deep South. For all it s worth, Go Set a Watchman is an interesting book. It mirrors the events, the life stories that were constant during those upheavals of the past, and still continue to these days. There will always be mockingbirds and watchmen around us. And thank God for the Harper Lees of the world. Every man s watchman, is his conscience, From: Go Set a Watchman, bcastro99@verizon.net 5 / 5

3. Describe themes in the novel and trace their development throughout the text.

3. Describe themes in the novel and trace their development throughout the text. Taking a Stand Have you ever spoken out against injustice, even when it angered others? This image from the 1962 movie To Kill a Mockingbird shows Atticus Finch, played by Gregory Peck, when he takes a